''Charonia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of very large sea snail, commonly known as Triton's trumpet or Triton snail. They are marine gastropod mollusks in the monotypic family Charoniidae.

Etymology

The common name "Triton's trumpet" is derived from the

Greek god The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion. Immortals The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house the ...

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

, who was the son of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

, god of the sea. The god Triton is often portrayed blowing a large seashell horn similar to this species.

Fossil records

This genus is known in the

fossil record A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s as far back as the

Cretaceous period The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of t ...

. Fossils are found in the marine strata throughout the world. Fossilworks
/ref>

Description

Species within the genus ''Charonia'' have large fusiform shells, usually whiteish with brown or yellow markings. The shell of the giant triton ''

Charonia tritonis ''Charonia tritonis'', common name the Triton's trumpet or the giant triton, is a species of very large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Charoniidae, the tritons. Reaching up to two feet (or 60 cm) in shell length this ...

'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758), which lives in the Indo-Pacific, can grow to over half a metre (20 inches) in length. One slightly smaller (shell size but still very large species, ''

Charonia variegata ''Charonia variegata'', the Atlantic triton or Atlantic triton's trumpet, is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Charoniidae, the triton snails, triton shells, or tritons. Distribution This species has ...

'' (

Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolo ...

, 1816), lives in the western

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Distribution

''Charonia'' species inhabit

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

waters worldwide.

Life habits

Unlike pulmonate and opisthobranch gastropods, tritons are not hermaphrodites; they have separate

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

es and undergo

sexual reproduction Sexual reproduction is a type of reproduction that involves a complex life cycle in which a gamete ( haploid reproductive cells, such as a sperm or egg cell) with a single set of chromosomes combines with another gamete to produce a zygote th ...

with internal fertilization. The female deposits white capsules in clusters, each of which contains many developing

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e. The larvae emerge free-swimming and enter the

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a crucia ...

, where they drift in open water for up to three months.

Feeding behavior

Adult tritons are active

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s and feed on other molluscs and starfish.Christopher Ma
Snails that eat Starfish : Predation in the tropical Indo-Pacific
/ref> The giant triton has gained fame for its ability to capture and eat crown-of-thorns starfish, a large species (up to 1 m in diameter) covered in venomous spikes an inch long. The crown-of-thorns starfish has few other natural predators, and are capable of destroying large sections of

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

. Tritons can be observed to turn and give chase when the scent of prey is detected. Some starfish (including the crown-of-thorns starfish) appear to be able to detect the approach of the mollusc by means which are not clearly understood, and they will attempt flight before any physical contact has taken place. Tritons, however, are faster than starfish, and only large starfish have a reasonable hope of escape, and then only by abandoning whichever limb the snail seizes first. The triton grips its prey with its

muscular Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscle ...

foot and uses its toothy radula (a serrated, scraping organ found in gastropods) to saw through the starfish's armoured skin. Once it has penetrated, a paralyzing saliva subdues the prey and the snail feeds at leisure, often beginning with the softest parts such as the

gonads A gonad, sex gland, or reproductive gland is a mixed gland that produces the gametes and sex hormones of an organism. Female reproductive cells are egg cells, and male reproductive cells are sperm. The male gonad, the testicle, produces sper ...

and gut. Tritons ingest smaller prey animals whole without troubling to paralyse them, and will spit out any poisonous spines, shells, or other unwanted parts later.

Species and subspecies

Species within the genus ''Charonia'' include: * '' Charonia guichemerrei'' Lozouet, 1998 † * '' Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * '' Charonia marylenae'' Petuch & Berschauer, 2020 * '' Charonia seguenzae'' (Aradas & Benoit, 1872) * ''

'' (

, 1758) * ''

'' (

, 1816) - Caribbean Triton's trumpet * '' Charonia veterior'' Lozouet, 1999 † ;Synonymized species: * ''Charonia capax'' Finlay, 1926: synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia digitalis'' (Reeve, 1844): synonym of '' Maculotriton serriale'' (Deshayes, 1834) * ''Charonia eucla'' Hedley, 1914 : synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia eucla instructa'' Iredale, 1929: synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia grandimaculatus'' Reeve: synonym of '' Lotoria grandimaculata'' (Reeve, 1844) * '' Charonia maculosum'' Gmelin: synonym of '' Colubraria maculosa'' (Gmelin, 1791) (new combination) * ''Charonia mirabilis'' Parenzan, 1970: synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia nodifera''(Lamarck, 1822): synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia poecilostoma'' Smith, 1915: synonym of '' Ranella gemmifera'' (Euthyme, 1889) * ''Charonia powelli'' Cotton, 1957 : synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia rubicunda'' (Perry, 1811): synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia sauliae'' (Reeve, 1844): synonym of ''Charonia lampas'' (

, 1758) * ''Charonia seguenzae''(Aradas & Benoit, 1872) synonym of ''Charonia variegata'' (Lamarck, 1816) * ''Charonia variegatus'' Reeve: synonym of ''Charonia variegata'' (Lamarck, 1816) Charonia lampas sauliae 145a.jpg, '' Charonia lampas'' Charonia tritonis a1.jpg, ''

'' Charonia variegata c2.jpg, ''

References

* Beu A.G. 1998. ''Indo-West Pacific Ranellidae, Bursidae and Personidae (Mollusca: Gastropoda). A monograph of the New Caledonian fauna and revisions of related taxa''. Mémoires du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle 178: 1-255

External links

An article on the crown-of-thorns starfish
which contains excellent pictures of one being eaten by a triton. {{Taxonbar, from1=Q591104, from2=Q58377059 Charoniidae Gastropod genera Cenomanian genus first appearances Extant Late Cretaceous first appearances Taxa named by Johannes von Nepomuk Franz Xaver Gistel